What can we do with this floor plan?

[Sunshinegirl82]

Hi all,

Attached is the floor plan of our house. We are finding that the "diner" end of the kitchen is hardly used and we're thinking about how to re-jig things.

The dining room is currently used as a play room. I was thinking we could take down the wall between the lounge and kitchen to make that open plan kitchen/diner/family room and keep the playroom as a sort of adult snug area.

We have quite a big garden and so might eventually add an extension onto the back or a conservatory but that will be a few years off!

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

[Sunshinegirl82]

Floor plan!

[JoJoSM2]

I like the idea of knocking through. The only thing to consider would be placement of furniture and kitchen cabinets as you’ll have little wall space left and there will be windows and doors on it.

[Chasingsquirrels]

Which is the dining and which is the kitchen end?

How usable is the utility room with all those doors? What is in there?

You could block up the door from the hall to the kitchen.
Have the kitchen end next to the utility, which would work without that door - a row of units under the window and a corner of units along the opposite side and to the utility door.

Then you could put double doors between the lounge and the other end of the room, pocket doors which slide into the wall would be great. You can have the space open but can still close them and have the open space. Have the eating area in front of the patio doors.

In reality, I'd leave it like it is!

[SuperAunt08]

I would block up the door into the kitchen from the hall and knock down the rest of that wall so you have an L shape.
We did similar in our house and the only thing I would suggest if you have open plan is to have a good extractor fan and if there’s space out the noisy things like washer and dryer in the utility room

[Sunshinegirl82]

The kitchen end is at the utility room end. It's not a terrible layout by any stretch, just wondering if we can tweak it. Sliding doors might work!

[greyhoundexplorer]

Sounds like a great idea. I'd knock the wall down as you suggest then put the kitchen in the lounge area as there are more walls for units, less doors etc
Make one end of the back room dining and one end with sofas and tv
Block the door from the hall into existing kitchen and put the TV on that wall

[Chasingsquirrels]

I'm really surprised that the kitchen is already at the utility end and yet the dining bit doesn't work for you. I thought it was going to be the other way round and the space wasn't well used because of having to walk through it etc.

In what way is it unused.
Do you not eat in there?
How old are the children? What about craft activities, painting, hama beads, homework, baking etc?

How would you use the space differently if you opened it up?

I've got double pocket doors between my lounge and playroom, I couldn't decide which way to have them when I was extending and then thought "sliding into the walls!". I love them.

[Mollythepoodle]

It depends on the age of your children too. How we used rooms when ours were little has changed now that they are older.

[Pinkbunny2811]

I would leave as is and actually just wait until you can extend and then have open plan kitchen/diner and a little lounge area when you extend, shift the kitchen out and make utility a bit bigger too (better for drying clothes in there in the winter). Then use the current dining room as a study/snug.

I have open plan through my house and the smells do travel from the kitchen so I doubt I'd have the same again tbh as it annoys me a bit.

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

That room on the front right is perfect for a living room for the evening. No toys etc.

Then yyto knocking the rest into one (keep utility loo tho!)

[BarkingHat]

I think you might find it works better for you once your children are a bit older, having open plan is a bit of a pain as they get older. You maybe just need to rethink the furniture placement and how you use it and what you use it for.

[Glamazoni]

Depends how wide it is and which ones are load bearing walls. You can’t just take down any wall.

[Sunshinegirl82]

DC are 4 and 15 months. 15 month old is a whirlwind who won't sit still for 5 minutes together.

At the moment I find I'm basically chasing DS2 from room to room because if he's in the lounge and I'm in the kitchen I can't see him at all. If DS1 wants to draw etc then I set him up at the kitchen table at which point DS2 tries to chuck himself off the sofa!

I can see that when they are older the current layout might work better